That’s a very fitting beginning indeed! I prefer much more than the modern beginning, which since Descartes has been: Philosophy begins with doubt.

And than of course there’s always the “Dionysian” impulse, that became famous with Bacon (but which goes back at least to Machiavelli, and probably Thrasymachus if you go back to Plato’s Republic), which is: “Like all things, philosophy begins with a will-to-power.”

And if I may suggest some answers to amelo:

1.) Perhaps only a few are called to be true philosophers; perhaps only a few ever can be.

2.) Perhaps, in the end, it’s worth even disastrous political consequences? Socrates had no problem with dying for the Truth, and in fact he even classified philosophy as “the Art of Dying”. I think that’s true in many respects.

3.) That’s an interesting question, which I’m not sure I understand entirely, although if you look at the original Greek, the word here is The word for “begin” here is arche (ρχή), which signifies a “ruling beginning” —-not merely a starting stage, which we eventually move beyond and discard but an animating, vitalizing, ever-present source which guides our entire inquiry.